Ben looked at the green device on his wrist in wonder. It had a funny design on it, two white lines starting at opposite corners, converging somewhere in the middle and then diverging again towards the opposite end. The device itself was huge, probably too big for him and definitely meant for someone much older. Ben tried tinkering with it, but it wouldn't come off.
He wasn't worried. Grandpa Max would know what to do. He always did. Until then, Ben was free to do as he pleased with his new found toy.
"watcha got there?"
Ben looked up. It was his annoying cousin.
"A gift from Grandpa Max" Ben told her.
"I don't believe you" said Gwendolen, not taking her eyes off the watch.
"Why? Just coz he likes me more than he likes you?" said Ben, not losing out on the opportunity to needle his sister.
"Let me see" said Gwen, reaching out to take possession of the watch. Ben pulled his hand away and kept it behind his back. He smiled at her. She looked at him with faint annoyance.
''I'm telling Grandpa" she said. With that she turned around and ran out of the woods towards the "Rustbucket", the affectionately named bus that the three of them were using to travel around the countryside.
"hehehe.. what a sucker" thought Ben to himself.
Maxwell Tennyson was worried. He remembered how often he had been told that you never really retired from being a plumber, dismissing the words as empty wisdom at the time. The memories came rushing back to him as a breathless Gwen told him about a "big, fancy green watch" that Ben was wearing. ("You don't think he stole it, do you Grandpa?")
He had left her kicking and screaming, and bursting with far too many questions in the Rustbucket, ("Ben's always getting into trouble Grandpa, why should I be punished?") and was now running faster than he had in years. His fitness was not what it once was, but he would still put many professional athletes to shame.
"Ben! Where are you?" he screamed, as he reached the spot that Gwen had described.
"I'm right here" said Ben. Max turned around to look at Ben, to find that he was still very much looking at a human, that it was still Ben except ...
Max realized at once what had happened. It would have completely skipped the attention of literally every other person on the planet. What were the odds? Not that stupefying, considering that *they* would have been looking to send it to him.
"Ben, we need to talk. Seriously. Now." Max Tennyson kept his voice calm, but stern. He was feeling far more relieved now than he was a few minutes ago, but this still meant that the worst was possible. He raised his right hand, his fist clenched, save for his index finger which pointed directly towards the direction he had come running from.
"What happened Gramps? What did Gwen say?" said Ben, his ten year old voice quivering slightly.
"I'll explain when we get ba-" Max stopped speaking as he saw his grandson's eyes glow a bright yellow. There really was no point in saying anything further now. Ben, at the age of ten years had just been exposed to a lifetime of experience, a majority of which was horrifying.
The fraction of a second in which Max waited felt like an eternity. Ben's mind would either be shattered from the trauma or...
"Oh, I see" managed Ben.